It is well known that it is desirable to store wine bottles on their sides, i.e., with their axes horizontal, so that the corks stay wet, thus not permitting spoilage of the wine by overexposure to air. Numerous racks are shown in the prior art which achieve this purpose. However, none of the racks shown by the prior art of which the present inventor is aware, are as efficient as would be desirable both in terms of the space consumed by a rack of given size, and of cost per bottle of storage capacity. Accordingly the present invention seeks to provide a more space efficient, more cost effective apparatus for the storage of wine bottles. For example, the wine storage rack shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,482 to Smith shows diamond shaped storage bins having panels positioned at a 60.degree. angle with respect to the horizontal. As is well known, the 60.degree. included angle means that bottles stacked one on top of another in rows tends to assume a closely packed array, and will fit the most efficiently into the least amount of space. However, the Smith rack is quite complex to manufacture, and has the additional disadvantage that the bottles within each of the bins sit on top of one another, so that if one should desire to remove a bottle from the bottom of the bin, one is obliged to remove most, if not all of the bottles above it. This may be no problem when cases (12 bottles) of the same wine are purchased, but it either wastes space or obliges removal of multiple bottles, when only a few bottles are purchased or remain. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an individual storage bin for some bottles of wine to be stored so that one can remove a single bottle without having to disturb any others, while preserving the efficiency of the 60.degree. angle. Furthermore, bottles typically vary in size, so that the Smith diamonds must be made oversized, and are consequently not as efficient as would be desirable.
The art is aware of the need for individual bottle storage and a wine rack which addresses it is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,746,178 to Wagschal. This patent shows a modular assembly to create a wine rack in which hexagonal end plates are spaced by connecting members. The hexagons interact to form a closely packed array, albeit with some extra spaces because of the extra material between the circular members by which the bottles are located. However, the Wagschal approach is overly complex inasmuch as an individual pair of plastic modules must be assembled for each bottle, which is an annoyance to the consumer and is unduly expensive and complex. Moreover, following the Wagschal approach leaves one with a structure having a base configuration which does not fit flat on, e.g. a floor, so that unless the structure is very heavily built it will not be sufficiently strong to support the weight of a large number of such holders, particularly when wine bottles are inserted therein. Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve the Wagschal approach by providing a stronger modular storage system for cylindrical objects, such as wine bottles, in which the basic module would be of greater capacity than one bottle per module, so as to require minimal assembly, and which would fit flat to the floor.
Another drawback of the Wagschal approach is that only one bottle can be stored in one module. It would be desirable to provide a structure wherein the modules themselves, when assembled, serve to define the space between them into additional storage area in which additional bottles could be efficiently stored so that the cost per bottle is effectively reduced.
A company known as Tedruth Plastics Corporation of Farmingdale, N.J., sells a "Modular Wine and Bottle Rack." This is a modular molded-plastic structure, in which individual bottle storage spaces are provided for up to six bottles. However, despite the hexagonal motif employed, this rack does not achieve the desirable closely-packed array; nor do the modules, when assembled, define additional storage locations.
Another modular approach to storage of wine bottles is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,681 to Plant in which a box-like structure is subdivided into a plurality of smaller bins by inserting pre-cut pieces of wood. In this way, one need not remove as many bottles to get one which is at the bottom of one of the bins. However, this can still in some cases be an annoyance. Furthermore, the Plant rack does not show utilization of the closely packed stacking feature provided by cylindrical bottles, but instead places the bin walls at 90.degree. which is less space-efficient than the 60.degree. angle shown in, for example, the Smith patent referred to above.
Accordingly, it is shown that the prior art does not satisfy all the needs of the marketplace.